We are part of
nature.I’m not here to tell you that we
all ought to live minimalist lives.R.
Buckminster Fuller said that there is indeed abundance and that if we learn to
use what is here, intelligently, we could all live like millionaires.Bucky turned out to be right about al awful
lot of things and I still think that that is potentially true that there could
be plenty for all, though the population has increased a great deal since he
expressed that opinion.There ought to
be far fewer of us.What is the
solution?Not breeding like rabbits
would be a start.

I am deeply
concerned about our species busily over-populating this planet into the
ground.2 billion, roughly a third of
what we have now, seems to be the optimum number of human beings on this
planet.Google “optimum human population” and you will find a lot of
interesting articles spelling out exactly why this is so.The planet could be forced to support
billions more of us than it already does.But what is the cost?One cost
our current population already exacts on the planet though is heavy pollution
of the air, water and land.Besides the
obvious negative effects of the pollution that washes through our environment
in waves, I believe that many of the current ills of humankind are caused by
over-crowding.If we consider one third
of our current population to be optimum, it gives new meaning to the concept of
what crowding is.

Open space is
being gobbled up at a terrifying rate for more and more development.What little wilderness we have left shrinks
with every passing day.We are grossly
out of balance with the other species with whom we
share this planet. There are many ways to divide people into groups.The one I am currently most aware of is
this:People who know that our survival and our quality of life are closely linked
to the well-being of other species, and those who do not know that.

Probably any
species would take over the world, if it could.We are supposed to be more intelligent though, and to be
self-aware.It is up to us to make the
moral decision to live in balance with nature and all of her creatures.Being grossly out of balance with the rest of
life on this planet isn’t only bad for other species; it is making all of us a
bit crazier and less healthy than we could be.

History will
bear me out.Meanwhile, we have the
chance to start turning this around.We
aren’t going to get back to an optimum state of balance any time soon,
certainly not within this life time of mine.We can start though, or rather contribute to
the motion that has already started among the more aware people in this
world.